Chapter 9 Meet me in the gym.
Meet me in the gym.
Kaa wrapped her body around my arm as she slipped along my flesh to wake me up. It had taken me so long to fall asleep, my mind wanted to stay there as long as possible. As my senses returned, the faint, tinny sound of my alarm clock pierced the silence.
When I looked at the phone that buzzed on my nightstand, I realized I’d already slept through the first two scheduled alarms.
“I should just stay in bed today.” I pushed my face into my pillow.
It wasn’t that I was too tired to face the day. The problem was Raymond. The thought of him still overwhelmed me; the moment his name surfaced, my heart pounded like a drum against my ribs.
I’d done everything to erase him from my mind before I hopped into bed, but nothing worked.
Not the roll in the grass with the plants, who seemed to perk up a lot more than they ever had the moment my hands touched the soil behind my house.
Not the shower that lasted so long, the hot water ran out.
I thought I could wash away everything that happened, but instead, I stood beneath the stream, imagining all the things I wished I had allowed.
I planned to get up early and head to the office. There was a report to write, and staff items to address. Instead, I picked up my phone and shot Natalie a message.
Me: Hey, running late today. Please pull the staff reports and inventory tracking for me to review when I get in.
I put the phone down beside me. Before I could drift back to sleep, Natalie had already responded, confirming she received my message and would have things ready when I got there.
With that done, my mind began the daily race, building the list of items I knew I would never be able to complete in one day.
Once that started, there was no way I could get back to sleep.
So, I pulled my bones from my bed, and headed for the kitchen.
Along the way, I scooped my laptop from my desk, and while the water heated for my tea, I powered up the laptop.
This was the perfect time for me to finish the report.
The events of the night before were still fresh in my mind. The moment my fingers began tapping the keys, Kaa’s small body reappeared. She loved the sound of the keys and would always dance to the beat. I smiled as she swayed, her petals moving like a dress flowing around her form.
“You look so pretty, Kaa,” I complimented her, and she moved in a circle then dipped her head in a tight bow.
The kettle whistled on the stove, and I abandoned my laptop to make my cup of tea.
I’d chosen a raspberry leaf and mullein blend to help with the terrible cramps I’d been having with my recent periods.
I fell in love with the blend years ago, and it had become a staple in my kitchen.
As I steeped the tea, flashes of Raymond passed through my mind.
“I can’t believe I did that.” I looked at Kaa, who had curled her body up on top of my open laptop. “How the hell am I supposed to face him now?”
She tapped the keys with her tail, as if she were actually writing a response to me. I leaned over to see a series of Rs and Ws fill the screen.
“You’re no help,” I fussed, and Kaa lifted her head, rolled her eyes, then slithered back over to her pot. “I didn’t mean to upset you!”
She would stay there for at least two days before she let me see her again. Sensitive little thing.
I finished making the tea and grabbed the bowl of fruit from the fridge before returning to the table.
While I nibbled on the fruit and sipped my tea, I worked on all the things that needed to be handled—responding to emails, filing official reports for two other work sites, and confirming four meeting requests, including one with Von.
It was the first of what would be many progress reports.
I wished I didn’t have to report an attempted robbery, but at least they would know we were on top of our game and earning our coin.
After responding to Von’s message, which had included an inquiry about Raymond, I realized I hadn’t heard from him. Not a text, call, or even an annoying email. The man had been quiet.
“Maybe he regrets it as much as I do,” I muttered wishfully as I closed my laptop and headed for the bathroom. Though I would have preferred to hide away for the day, I needed to go to the office.
During the first hour, I was too busy to be concerned with Raymond.
During the next three, thoughts of him would creep up then quickly fade away.
Five hours into my day, I became annoyed.
Where the hell was he? No, I didn’t want anything more from him, but how dare he not at least text to make sure I was okay?
“Just like every other man,” I huffed as I flipped through the papers on my desk.
“Who is?” Natalie stood in front of me.
“Shit!” I hadn’t heard her come in, and her voice had me jumping out of my skin. “Please don’t do that.”
“I knocked.” She pointed back at the door. “You’ve been really distracted today. You even made a mistake in the inventory calculation here.” She slipped the document over to me on the desk.
“I did?”
“That’s at least double what we need.” She pointed to the total on the page. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I guess I am a little distracted.” I leaned back in my seat. “Last night…”
“The incident at the studio?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I recovered. I’d almost slipped and told her about Raymond. I glanced at the couch beneath the window, which I had conveniently buried in random items throughout the day.
“Do you want me to clean that up?” Natalie followed my gaze.
“Oh, no.” I waved her off. “I’ll handle it. It’s getting late. You should get going. I’ll correct the inventory report myself.”
“You know I can do a lot of this stuff.” Natalie paused then quickly blurted out, “It’s what you pay me for.”
“Yeah.” I understood her hesitation. She didn’t want to feel like she was overstepping. “I promise to hand a lot more over to you soon.”
“Okay.” She chewed her lip, as if considering saying something else, but she didn’t.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yep. I’ll head home now.” Natalie turned and ran from my office.
“That was weird.” I looked at the door for a moment before returning to the work in front of me.
After another two hours of working without accomplishing much, I gave up.
The entire time, I could only think of what both Natalie and Raymond had already said to me.
Why was I spending so much of my time doing things I should have offloaded to Natalie already?
She was more than capable, but there was something in me that refused to give up the work, some fear that everything would be ruined or worse—taken from me.
What I needed was time to journal and work out my feelings.
So, I cleaned up the couch, put away the documents, and headed out.
As I stepped out of my office into the waiting room, my thoughts shifted from giving up control to keeping control of myself.
“Did you have enough time?” Raymond spoke as he stood from the chair by the front door. I hadn’t realized he was there, and his presence caught me off guard. Exactly what he wanted, I was sure.
“Enough time for what?” I held back all expressions of how annoyed I’d been about him not reaching out to me.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice my absence.” He plastered on the fakest pout I’d ever seen. The expression looked painful on his face. “Here I was, thinking I would give you space to process what happened, and you weren’t even thinking about me?”
“Sorry to hurt your feelings.” I played it cool.
“I’ll survive this like I have so many other hurts in the past.” He walked over to me. “Nevertheless, I had to see you again.”
“Listen.” I held up my hand to stop him. “About last night. That was a mistake, and it’s never happening again.”
“Is that so?” he stopped. “A mistake? Are you sure about that? I gave you plenty of opportunities to reconsider.”
He held his hands out to his side just as he had the night before, and I immediately remembered what he looked like without his shirt, imagining in full detail the muscles of his arms and chest and the tattoos that covered them.
“I’m not sure what you expect to happen, but whatever it is, get it out of your head.” I pointed to his shoulder. “How’s the cut?”
“See how much you care about me?”
“Only because if it gets worse, I have to report it.”
“Well, ease your worries. The cut is fine. Healing up perfectly.” He pulled at the collar of his shirt, a black t-shirt, so I could see the bandage still in place. “You want to examine it?”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“I’m surprised you’re leaving this early.” He pointed to the window. “There’s still sunlight.”
“I need to—” I was going to say I had to clear my head but realized it might lead to further conversation I didn’t want to deal with. “Go to the store.”
“The store?” He frowned. “That’s vague.”
“Groceries. I need groceries,” I blurted out, knowing damn well I didn’t need to go to the store. I had just had groceries delivered two days ago.
“Perfect, me too! I’ll tag along.” He offered the company I was clearly trying to avoid.
“Seriously?” I asked. “How do you even know what store I’m going to?”
“What’s the difference? I’m not picky.” He held the door open. “Let’s go.”
With no other option to escape him, I sighed and headed out the door. As he tailed me from the office to the grocery store, I tried to think of anything I needed at the house, but my mind went blank. All I could think of was honey. I needed more honey for my tea.
He parked next to me and followed me into the store, grabbing a basket as we entered. Our trip turned into me playing tagalong as he filled the basket with fruits, vegetables, and other items.
Damn, he actually needed to go grocery shopping!
We had walked the entire store, and all I grabbed were two jars of honey and a pack of gummy bears.
“That’s what you needed?” He raised a brow at me.
“Yep.”
“You were just trying to avoid me, weren’t you?” He snorted.